The new leader of Labour Sir Keir Starmer says today “Labour will do the right think for the Country”. Well that would be a first? They usually just destroy the economy, look after the state sector and the unions, bury the country in debt and destroy jobs. This while incubating the evil politics of envy.

Appointing Ed (tomb stone) Miliband, the man who (like Corbyn) wanted to thieve assets off Landlords to try to buy the votes of tenants is certainly not “the right thing” for the country. It is just theft and help no one in the end.

“They usually just destroy the economy, look after the state sector and…”

brought about all the major advances for this country like the end to the death penalty, equal pay act, open university, racial discrimination act and of course the crowning glory of their achievements, the National Health Service.

The Tories? Look after the rich and leave a few crumbs for the peasants at the bottom.

The National Health Service blue prints had both governments hands in it. Half of it is a pension ponzu scheme that wasn’t planned properly with PAYE workers in the private sector contributing 25.8% over the Lower earnings level (meaning all those that choose do work part time hardly make any contribution) the self employed make a much reduced contribution and as we’re now learning umbrella companies and others don’t pay any contribution and you’re telling me this was a Labour Party success.

I often find the people who moan the most about health service spending are those who pay in the least!

President Trump seems to have been right on all the key issues. He is one tremendous leader who gets things done and fights for his country and its people.

This videoclip from years ago shows that this his love for his country and his determination to do good for it not some newly acquired characteristic: link in this tweet by w terrence.https://twitter.com/w_terrence/status/1247305797836713992
@w_terrence
“This is a must watch. I’ve been telling people President @realDonaldTrump has always cared about America. He has not changed. Here is PROOF! WATCH & RT”

Absolutely. Boris seems to be in a better position than others in intensive care, has needed less oxygen. Let’s hope they were being very cautious and that he is turning the corner under their care, we need him in full health and wiser ASAP.

I wish Mr. Johnson as swift a return to good health as possible, and extend my sincerest thanks and admiration to the professionals, doing their best for him, and for every other sufferer of this menace.

Another high profile victims to add to the list. I hope he recovers quickly and fully.

Why does the media have to make out that the government now cannot cope? There is a policy and a structure in place to deal with situations such as this. But the media of course has to mke it out to be more of a crisis than it actually is to fill air time.

I am fed up with self serving reporters making mountains out of molehills.

They are doing it because they don’t want the DPM, chosen and announced as the DPM when the Cabinet was formed, to be the DPM. They want someone whom they can rely on to reverse Brexit. No matter how great the national tragedy, they will use it for their own foul ends.

I must say I was amazed at how upset I felt about his plight. I have been horrified at the political direction he has taken latterly , but such awful news does remind me that politics is only politics .
Lets hope for better news today

I do not believe Boris Johnson’s illness is a political statement. He is a man who is well known and much liked by many people irrespective of his politics; furthermore it is shocking that a vigorous man in his prime can be seriously afflicted by an illness that some persistently liken to the flu.

Well, we don’t know exactly what treatment he is having although, according to Sky News, he apparently doesn’t have pneumonia and is having standard oxygen treatment. The reason people liken it to the flu is because, that is what a bad dose of flu can do to you – bring on breathing difficulties, pneumonia and death in far more cases than COVID 19 ever will, as for example two years ago in the UK.

Pneumonia is a potential secondary infection of flu, whereas COVID-19 can and does attack the lungs.

The PM is fortunate that he is getting the best possible medical attention in one of our great teaching hospitals whose main catchments are the third world. We in the provinces get hospitals staffed by the third world. Presumably this is the inequality which PHE wishes to address.

MiC – please point me to the study/peer reviewed article that shows… ‘The risk of pneumonia and death in CV cases is about ten to thirty times greater than with flu.’ and also the study/peer reviewed article where… ‘CV appears to be far more infectious as well as more dangerous.’

Forthurst, the government on 19 March removed COVID-19 from the High Consequence Infectious Disease list on its own website because of “low overall death rates”, among other things. It is they who have put CV on a par with seasonal flu, which as you know can be dangerous, particularly to the elderly and those with underlying conditions, and which can lead to pneumonia.

Chris, I’m aware of that; it’s just one of the idiocies of the way this epidemic is being handled. The Chinese government upgraded it to the same category as SARS within one day of receiving that recommendation from a team of virologists and epidemiologists following their visit to Wuhan hospitals.

Were any hospitals treating patients with COVID-19 visited by the armchair experts here?

From the report on BBC news last night, from another London ITU ward. the consultant in charge and the others in the team were working under great strain and providing excellent care under the circumstances. The surgeon was asked what treatments he was giving and I was pleasantly surprised that he mentioned hydrochorozine. Hopefully, Boris and all the other patients will be getting the same excellent care from these experienced excellent professionals.
As you are heading for the vulnerable group SJR please make sure that you are taking better precautions than were being shown in Downing Street, where even after the infection had started they were not distancing and piled into the same car when leaving. The tube, buses and cabs must be a prime source of transmission. Stay out of London if at all possible.
Where we are staying, our next door neighbours have probably caught the virus where a teenage child and the father have bad symptoms, probably brought home from school. It brings home the seriousness of the epidemic literally.

We all wish people who are ill a speedy recovery, regardless of who they are. That’s a matter of honour. But once Mr Johnson is recovered, I won’t be wishing him well.

I’m still waiting for this letter we were all supposed to be receiving. I’ll be replying when I receive it. You won’t like what I have to say.

This whole thing has been an absurd panic on the part of the media over a virus that is non-fatal for the overwhelming majority of infected. The government started out fairly sensibly in its approach, though I’m still not clear why they didn’t close the borders, if this is so virulent. Surely that’s the very first thing you’d do in the interests of public health in such circumstances?

Anyway, that aside, I still can’t quite believe we are under lockdown over something so trivial. You’d think flesh-eating zombies were on the rampage. I’m very sorry the Prime Minister is ill, but people do get ill, and people do die. These are facts of life. Terribly sorry, but we can’t shut down all social and economic life just on the off-chance Grandpa Joe is going to succumb to the flu.

I find myself in a position in which I feel like I am addressing little children rather than responsible adults. Are there any adults left in this country?

It is likely to kill about 30 times the number of people who died in the Grenfell fire and many are not very old either. So why do you think this is so trivial? The lock down is only to ensure people do not die for lack of basic medical care. Once the NHS can get up to speed and cope we can hopefully get back to work.

If the Government did nothing, and say, half a million people died – as predicted by the entire medical and scientific community as reasonable to assume – whilst Germany, Norway and China held their fatalities down to a few thousand – out of over a billion people – then I’m quite sure that they would indeed be held responsible.

If you want to do something daring, “manly” and useful, then why don’t you volunteer to be a vaccine test subject? Or maybe a food taster, for Assad of Syria?

Italy has about 4000 in intensive care and has about 600 dying every day. At least he does not need a mechanical ventilation currently it seems. Medics need to get to the bottom of why some people get it so much worse than others (perhaps being able to predict who in advance). Please can medics try to find some ways to improve survival rates. There is surely little to be lost by trying out some new treatments that might work with the permission of some patients.

PRAYER – why is that such a dirty word?
President Trump, that much maligned businessman turned President got it totally right.
He was warm, friendly and personal and he actually mentioned the forbidden word too!
And on LBC yesterday lots of people did too.

The fact that Britain managed to legally leave the EU 3 months (after 47 years!) before this virus ripped through the EU’s Tower of Babel is a miracle and I am on my knees thanking God for delivering us, at the last minute, again! Boris played his part for which we should all be grateful. Give him strength!

I disagree with everything Boris Johnson stands for but, obviously, I wish him well and a speedy recovery.

But in his absence we urgently need to look at who is running the country. This is a government – and a Parliament – devoid of talent and experience. The Chancellor has been in post for three weeks. Raab is a political lightweight. Patel is also only in her job because she backed Brexit and not because she has any relevant skills. Labour’s leader has been in his job since Saturday. There is an acting leader of the Lib Dems – and all MPs have been sent home. Even the Speaker is new.

At the time of the greatest crisis we have had since WW2 we are being led by minnows.
We urgently need experienced people with relevant skills guiding our country – and not incompetent ideologues.

We need a unity government of the best and brightest from across the political spectrum. Make them lords if needs be. Ken Clarke, William Hague, Gordon Brown, Nicola Sturgeon. We need poltical giants – and not Robert Jenrick, Oliver Dowden or Alok Sharma.

Incidentally we need only to look to Germany which has dealt with this crisis brilliantly. Led by Angela Merkel – no wonder their death rate is so low. Competent and experienced leadership. Compare and contrast with the UK and US.

Suggest Andy reads article by Will Jones in Con. Woman where it is reported a leaked document shows German govt strategy in cahoots with media to scare the public witless not to go out. Trust, none when the truth is known. Believe the govt next time, I think not. Nothing justifies lying to the public in this way.

A bit like the EU founders using the strategy to use economic scare stories to further their project, same for remainers using economic scare stories to scare the public, EU and Irish govt to scare Irish public to change vote about Lisbon Treaty. Andy see the pattern? What country leads the EU? You’ll get there.

” leaked document shows German govt strategy in cahoots with media to scare the public witless not to go out”

Only a witless population would ignore advice by experts. Their strategy is obviously working hence these encouraging figures. Pity we didn’t follow suit and instead listened to fools like Boris and Trump.

I suspect the German death rate is so low mainly because they are just testing more people, so the deaths merely “appear” to be lower. The deaths are just over a higher denominator of cases. They look to be about a week or so behind the UK. Nothing to do with brilliant handling infections are still rising it also has the advantage of more space per person so might do a bit better in the end for that reason.

Also German Govt. stopped autopsies (under disguise of infection, despite HIV and other infectious deaths still being done) so cause of death cannot be confirmed. Particularly with or from corona virus.

You mean we need people who you agree with like Starmer, the human rights lawyer you guys have just picked, though they lost the election? France has more deaths than the U.K. at the moment in the unpleasant and irrelevant comparison you are making. Is that because M Macron is President?

The countries with the best outcomes to date are those who have previous experience of these disasters from China. Taiwan has done best, not that you ever hear that from leftists engaged in the great kow tow.

There are many excellent and clear-sighted ministers under Boris, and may he return to his post in good health quickly.

I simply pointed out that, in his absence, he has a cabinet of minnows. The inexperienced and the incompetent.

Every other PM I can remember had a credible backup. Major had Heseltine. Blair had Brown. Cameron had Hague or Clarke.

Johnson has no heavyweights around him. The closest is Gove – who is sick.

At this trying time our country deserves better than someone who struggled to find Dover on a map. I have no confidence in Raab. I don’t care what he says. He is unelected, unaccountable and I for one am not going to do what he says.

I do feel that we are kicking ourselves too much. We have a society with many aged and sick individuals kept going by the NHS with pills and treatments – this, unfortunately, makes them vulnerable to Covid 19 (pre existing conditions.)

Sir John, Andy’s offensive and ridiculous post should never have seen the light of day – a unity government including Nicola Sturgeon? Please don’t add to the junk out there on other social media sites. If you do, you will lose a great deal of credibility

@Jiminyjim; “Andy’s offensive and ridiculous post should never have seen the light of day”

What, exactly, did you find “offensive”, its not as if he didn’t wish the PM well.

Most of his comments (bar those regarding Germany) were stating an uncomfortable fact about the 58th parliament, and it would have applied equally to a Labour govt had they won the last GE -and no doubt the hard right would have made exactly the same “ridiculous” comments…

“a unity government including Nicola Sturgeon”

Well she could always deal with the media, her Hollyrood briefing have towered above those from Downing Street for necessary & concise information, and it pains me to say so, detesting the SNP and all they stand for.

“Please don’t add to the junk out there on other social media sites. If you do, you will lose a great deal of credibility”

Many would suggest that applies to comments from the hard right, so often posted to and published on our hosts site, just as much as it does those on the left such as Andy and MiC.

You seem to enjoy arguing for it’s own sake.
It’s as if you read posts on here and argue the opposite view for the fun of it.
Or to pass the time.
But it is pretty obvious your views are not heartfelt.

I’d expect that a suggestion that we need the “best and brightest from across the political spectrum” who are “political giants” would name some politicians who fit that description. Instead, you suggest Ken Clarke, William Hague, Gordon Brown and Nicola Sturgeon.

Agree John. A really sad state of affairs and terrible for his pregnant partner. She must be very concerned as we all are. Just as we find ourselves a good PM all has gone wrong. Best wishes Boris. Your country needs you.

It is quite shocking to hear that Boris has deteriorated and all my family wish for a safe and total recovery for Boris Johnson, our thoughts and prayers are with all his extended family who must be worried sick as with all other patients isolated in hospitals right now.

It distresses me that some journalists are panicking their readers with headlines such as Jenkins ‘The Machinery Of Government is Malfunctioning’ – he needs calling out on this, in what way is it malfunctioning? We have been told there is a fully operational procedure in place and working to move the cabinet into positions if members are ill. Raab needs to get a grip on his perceived ‘ruffled Raab’ impression he gave John Crace to share when giving the news and owning up to a lack of communication with the PM since Saturday.

Another headline ‘government is adrift’ – end this perception quickly.

What do you mean “owning up to a lack of communication”? They had spoken on Saturday and the PM went into hospital on Sunday. How could they have spoken on Sunday, or Monday? Be reasonable. Would you have telephoned someone in that position? Would you have expected to get through? Anyway, they might have texted or emailed for all the reptiles knew. They didn’t ask.

They are trying every low trick in the book to discredit the DPM and pretend he isn’t the DPM because they want a GNU.

Good point Rose, once again Crace undermining Raab unnecessarily.
There is no purpose or reason to have a GNU the Conservative party have a large majority not a marginal government or coalition, not only that they have plenty of expertise available to them in the House of Commons the Lords and from around the World with feedback from other governments going through this.

Trump in a very long Press Conference, right from the start says he has sent specialists to Boris, they “have arrived,” and have “new therapeutic ” items…”they are there and they can use them if they wish”
There are many references to Boris throughout, one in answer to a journalist is a revelation on the conduct of the UK government prior to its decision to lockdown. A surprise!

I am sorry to say this wasn’t a shock to me. A deep upset, but not a shock. He was evidently ill in the House of Commons and when he first announced the curfew that Monday evening. But he was working so hard he probably didn’t notice. Once confined to no 11, one had to watch helplessly as he grew visibly worse. It was only a matter of time. None of this is a surprise when one considers what he has been through since his resignation over Chequers. There has been no let up at all. Even the winter holiday which was begrudged him by so many, was interrupted. How can he have had any resistance left, especially working an 18 hour day?

Those who called him a part-time PM when he has been the most frenetically driven one we have had since Mrs T, have a lot to answer for. Trump had better keep them all praying as there is so much malevolence here to counter.

Hear! Hear!
Let us not forget the cheap and disgusting comments by Layla Moran, Illiberal non-Dem for Oxford West and Abingdon, who was quick out of the blocks to accuse Boris of putting “Brexit before Breathing!” because HMG did not join in EU procurement scheme to obtain ventilators.

Cameron on World at One:- “With a permanent, professional and impartial civil service …… we do have something of a Rolls Royce machine”.

Well they are certainly very expensive and wasteful like a Rolls Royce and they cost a lot to run plus there are load of them. But, as we see with the, appallingly inept, advance pandemic planning and the burying of the pandemic planning exercise reports in 2016, they are very often totally incompetent. They are certainly not remotely impartial either. They are almost, to a person, group think, pro EU, big government, climate alarmists with almost no sensible and sound scientists, economist, business people or engineers to be seen.

Please add my very best wishes to Boris and his family. A feature of the present Conservative party is the quantity of talent at the top, but Boris is clearly pre-eminent and we need all he has to offer.

Best wishes and a speedy recovery to Boris Johnson. I am sure the stresses of his term as prime minister might have worn him down and he needs a bit of relaxation. Even Winston Churchill got some occasional relief!

I am distraught to hear that Boris was putting in a 16-hour day despite the fact that he was as sick as a person can be.

He put his immune system at risk at the very time that he ought to have been conserving it for the dreaded 10th day of Covid. He did this for his country and his people, doubtless having been fully briefed on the awful end to this sickness.

This is one of the bravest and most selfless acts I have witnessed. I am numb. This all seems too surreal.

We have a true hero on our hands, for the present at least.

I don’t pray but he’s in my thoughts all the time now and I dread every news bulletin.

‘It may just turn out that most South Africans are safe because it’s mandatory to have a Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination when they are born to prevent life-threatening TB later on.

“We found that countries without universal policies of BCG vaccination, such as Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States, have been more severely affected compared to countries with universal and long-standing BCG policies,” noted the researchers led by Gonzalo Otazu, assistant professor of biomedical sciences at NYIT.

Spaniards are almost 3x more likely to get Covid19, and 10x more likely to die.

India, like Portugal, administers the BCG vaccine to millions of children soon after birth to combat TB (tuberculosis). And like Portugal, Indian has seen a much lower infection rate, especially when you consider the higher risk of infection due to cramped living conditions and poverty.

And yet the USA, where there are no mandatory BCG vaccinations, has the highest number of infections, in spite of the USA’s being is 4x smaller, 28x richer and 13x less populated than India.’

I’m not a medic. I am just passing on statistical information. It could be that the lockdown can be unlocked by releasing those who have a very low chance of contracting Covid 19. Like those who had BCG inoculations at birth, without testing each one individually.

The HIV epidemic is a relatively new thing. TB was treated long before that. I am 65 and was born in Natal, so had the BCG and malaria jabs. I am doing everyone’s shopping for them, I think I am now immune to Covid 19, I had a sore throat for 2 days, then OK.

My brother-in-law who lives in London has just had confirmation that he had Covid 19 – hospitalised in the first week of February for 4 days. Assuming he was among the first to get it, it puts the Imperial College predictions up the spout!

One for Boris…Is there some historical connection between the Irish and French we do not know about?
Authorities in Paris have banned exercise outside during the day, as the fight against the coronavirus outbreak continues.
BBC Online
“The new rules are in force between 10:00 and 19:00 local time, and come into effect on Wednesday.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo and the chief of police said this would restrict people to exercise “when the streets are generally at their quietest”.

For years they (the bureaucrats running the NHS) have had their priorities wrong. Get rid of the damn bureaucrats and let the front line doctors and nurses have the money and the support. Let the clinical/medical decisions be made by doctors and get the bureaucrats out of the system. Root and branch overhaul needed.

I’m sure Mr Johnson would draw strength from his hero,Winston Churchill, at this time.

According to Lord Moran, his physician, Churchill was similarly seriously ill during a time of darkness and desperation for the nation, having likely suffered at least one heart attack during the struggle to defeat Hitler.

Boris will be only too aware of this and I’m absolutely sure will draw inspiration from Churchill, likewise prove up to the challenge of fighting back, and succeed in guiding the nation through adversity having overcome a major physical complaint.

Revealing data from New York just released emphasising the significance of underlying illnesses (something that is apparently being hidden in this country and others who are not distinguishing between those who die WITH Corona virus, and those who died BECAUSE OF Corona virus. What a mockery that will make of epidemiology studies and predictions which require accurate statistics.

From tweet by USA Today

“New data on New York coronavirus deaths: Most had these underlying illnesses; 61% were men
The majority of New York’s more than 4,700 coronavirus deaths were among men, and 86% of all deaths were among people who had underlying illnesses.
usatoday.com

I share your opinion for the large part, I think that some factors are worth having a more detailed appearance to
understand what is happening.

About John Redwood

John Redwood won a free place at Kent College, Canterbury, and graduated from Magdalen College Oxford. He is a Distinguished fellow of All Souls, Oxford. A businessman by background, he has set up an investment management business, was both executive and non executive chairman of a quoted industrial PLC, and chaired a manufacturing company with factories in Birmingham, Chicago, India and China. He is the MP for Wokingham, first elected in 1987.